Crafting in Tree of Savior

I’ve only just begun to take a look at crafting in Tree of Savior and what I’ve found thus far is pretty minimal. It hardly seems to be a key aspect of the game yet it is a viable way to obtain better gear. If you’re looking for a deep and intricate crafting system, you’re not going to find it here, however if you like the idea of crafting one or two pieces every now and again as the culmination of several quest chain rewards, then you’ll be quite happy. Before going any further though, I want to clarify that this is not intended to be a definitive guide, this is just what I have discovered so far by naturally playing through the game without outside resources.

Recipes are required to craft items, and from what I’ve seen this is limited to gear and weapons. Everyone is able to craft these items and the materials are gained through questing and killing mobs, not farming nodes of any kind. So you won’t find a list of professions to chose from or have to limit yourself to one form of crafting over another because the entire system is pretty limited to begin with.

Other than the weapons and gear you can make, I’ve seen no other forms of crafting. If they exist, it must be something discovered later on in the game.  There are several “crafting” classes like the Squire, Alchemist and the Pardoner however I wouldn’t call them crafters so much as “service” classes. If you happen to play a Swordsman, Wizard or Cleric respectively and select one of those three advanced classes you will be able to set up a shop in one of the cities to sell item repairs, improve gems, or even sell abilities. From what I understand you can have one character set up to sell these things in town while playing on another character on the same account. It’s a simple form of having player vendors but it’s more than what I’ve seen in most other MMOs.

As for the more “traditional” crafting in Tree of Savior, it seems limited to a handful of recipes that are obtained as quest rewards and as the occasional drop from random mobs. At first, most of the recipes you receive will be for blue quality or “uncommon” gear. You will have to collect several crafting ingredients as drops along with a base item, like a simple chest piece or gloves which can be received as quest rewards or random drops. Once you’ve collected everything you will need to have your character sit (I forget the default key as I remapped mine) and then press “2” to open the crafting window.

The menu will appear on the left hand side where you can select the item you wish to make. Selecting the item will expand the menu where you will then click on the boxes with plus signs to add each ingredient, name your piece if you would like, and then once you are ready press “craft” to make the item.  You will need to have your materials in your bag as they will not be detected if they are in your storage. Thankfully Tree of Savior is very generous with the amount of crafting materials you can hold in your bag so it’s not too difficult to hold on to everything you need to make several items.

Recipes rewarded at higher levels will require materials that can only be obtained by defeating bosses you will encounter During several quest chains spanning 2 or 3 zones. The end result will be a crafted purple, or “rare” quality item. This is why I’m starting to think crafting was simply meant to be a way to reward players for fully completing a series of maps and quests by providing powerful gear that otherwise can’t be earned any other way during the leveling process. If that’s the intention then I like the way crafting is implemented as it makes the gear feel more meaningful because of how long it took to obtain everything. It also makes it more rewarding because it’s the only way to earn such a powerful piece of gear.

This robe required a recipe earned as a quest reward as well as ingredients obtained by defeating three different bosses over as many maps.

 

I’m still hoping there may be more to crafting in Tree of Savior, but if not I think the system works with the simplicity of the game. While it may be limited at early levels I like that crafting an item feels important once you’ve finally gathered everything. And since crafting isn’y a skill to level you aren’t required to make a pile of vendor trash in order to reach the next tier. Instead you work through the story quests to earn the ingredients needed to make a useful item that cannot be obtained anywhere else.

Black Desert Online: Castle Sieges

PvP is not my bag, baby, so it’s not the gameplay I’m looking forward to most in Black Desert. No, I plan on spending my time building boats, fishing, and running my goods from one side of the world to the other. But after learning a little more about castle sieges, I’m optimistic about the PvP that will be available whenever I want to give it a try. The following is by no means a comprehensive guide, just a few bullet points to help paint a picture of what castle sieges will be like in Black Desert. As always, keep in mind I’m just sharing from my own research; I have yet to get in the game myself.

• Castle Sieges are large scale PvP battles fought between several guilds for temporary ownership of a castle. Castles reside in each region, usually near a city with a large populace. Holding a castle provides several benefits to the guild that wins, most notably a share in the local taxes applied to all goods sold in the nearby city. If you’re not in a guild, you can still participate in a siege (like a mercenary I suppose) but you will only get the benefits if your guild participates and wins.
• If you’re not plaining on doing PvP in Black Desert, I wouldn’t let these taxes worry you. As near as I can tell, they are going to be a constant for all players—you will always get taxed by a guild when you do conduct trade in a town no matter what is happening with the local sieges so think of them as a constant rather than a PvP specific impediment. The only difference is who you’re paying; not whether you will pay or not. Think of it as being no different than when you are selling items on the auction house in any other game.
• Castles have two gates—an inner and an outer—that need to be breached in order to gain control. These can be attacked by player characters as well as siege weapons. One of the most exciting aspects of Castle Sieges for me as someone uninterested in PvP, is that siege weapons can only be provided by crafters, which means if you’re a lover not a fighter, you can peacefully help your guild destroy their enemies.
• For a castle siege to take place, at least three guilds need to set up a camp near the castle being breached. This is where members of the guild will rez after they have been killed so placement and defense of a guild’s camp is very important. Camps can be destroyed, slowing down your enemies by making them revive at the nearest town rather than at the castle. Castle owners will also have a camp; there’s will be inside and must be destroyed in order to win the day.

That should give you a basic idea of what to expect with castle sieges. They are very similar in gameplay with what you might experience in WvW in Guild Wars 2 with the main difference being the economic rewards for winning, the fact that sieges in BDO are not a part of a separate instance, and that they are a much shorter event, currently lasting about 2-3 days on Korean servers. I may not be on the front lines myself, but I will definitely be providing supplies and possibly weapons from the safety of my woodworking bench.

 

Black Desert: The Knowledge System

If there’s one aspect of gameplay I’m most excited about in Black Desert, it’s the knowledge system. If this is as in depth and engaging as it sounds like it will be, this will be the thing that sets Black Desert apart from all other MMOs. So what is the knowledge system? Well, in three weeks when the second closed beta starts I’ll be able to provide hands on feedback but for now, here’s what I’ve been able to decipher.

Energy

Energy is a resource used for crafting, hiring workers, gathering, NPC conversations, and a host of other in game activities. Your total amount of energy will grow as your knowledge of the world grows (more on that later) and this energy pool size is shared across all your characters but not the energy itself. Each individual character can use the full amount and will refill their own pool independently. So for example, if you have a maximum of 100 energy, you may have one character at 20/100, another at 60/100, and two others with 100/100.

Energy is gained in several ways. First of all it regenerates over time at one rate while you’re logged in and at a slower rate when you’re offline. It can also be gained by completing certain quests that offer energy as a reward. Energy may also be purchased from the mileage shop, which is essentially a loyalty rewards system. Every day you log on you gain a currency called mileage and with that currency there are a number of items you can purchase including a bottle of 10 energy. However energy cannot be purchased from the regular cash shop with real money.

Contribution

Contribution is a resourced primarily used to purchase houses and claim nodes however there are a few other items that can be aquired with the resource. Unlike energy, your contribution pool is shared account wide however it is never lost, only invested, and everything you purchase with it will be accessible by all your characters. It’s pretty clear from this and other aspects of the knowledge system that Black Desert is meant to be played with many characters on one account working together toward common objectives.

Contribution is gained by completing quests, many of which will become dailies that you can repeat in order to continue increasing the amount of contribution you can invest. It will aid in your crafting and trading pursuits in several ways. First of all, contribution will be used to buy houses where you will set up crafting shops, establish warehouses, and house your workers. You can have up to five house at a time and you will need them all to accomplish your economic goals. It will also be used to buy nodes; think of these as connecting the dots between cities to establish trade routes. Without the dots connecting, you won’t make nearly as much money peddling your wares.

Knowledge

Knowledge is not a resource you earn in order to spend it on something else, but rather one that is used to improve your influence on the world around you and the NPCs that inhabit it. Knowledge will improve your combat skills, increase your energy pool, it will open up new quest opportunities that you didn’t have before, and I’m sure many other benefits that I haven’t discovered yet. Knowledge is gained by opening up new areas of the world map, fighting new mobs, talking with NPCs, from drops, trades, in game books, the surrounding ecology—everything you interact with in game will be a source of knowledge.

Central to the knowledge system is the importance of gaining influence with the world’s NPCs. When you first start playing, think of your character as someone who has moved to a new city with no family, friends, or networking contacts of any kind. As they explore the world and talk with NPCs, it becomes easier to interact with the people around them, they start to make “acquaintances” opening up new opportunities. This idea is played out as a mini-game which simulates the idea that the more people you know and local experiences you share, the better relationships you establish. Doing so opens up new quests.

Putting it all together

These aren’t three separate resources with no overlap, the acquisition and spending of each influences the other two. For example, you will use energy to gather materials and to hire the workers needed to refine those materials into something you can craft with. You’ll need contribution to establish the houses necessary for that process as well as the trade routes the nodes provide in order to sell the materials in other cities. To gain energy and contribution you’ll need to do quests and to increase the number or quality of missions available to you, you’ll have to increase your knowledge and influence with the NPCs. Greater knowledge expands your energy pool which allows you to gather or craft more items which will be processed in your growing stable of houses, which will require even more contribution and energy earned by the quests you’ve opened up—you get the idea.

This is the kind of MMO gameplay I can get behind. It’s immersive, expansive, and can be tailored in a myriad of ways to your playstyle preferences. If this system plays out as well as it sounds, Black Desert is going to be a unique experience where interacting with the world is the end game. I for one am looking forward to it.